BSection II Reading Comprehension/B

You and your friend just arrived home from a trip arranged by a travel agency named HappyTours. You are most unsatisfied with the service and arrangement of the travel agency and you decide to write a letter of complaint to the Manager of HappyTours. Imagine some details of this trip. Write your letter in no less than 100 words and write it neatly. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter; use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write the address.

StrikeaBalancebetweenWorkandRestWriteanessayof160-200wordsbasedonthedrawing.Inyouressay,youshould1)describethedrawingbriefly,2)explainitsintendedmeaning,and3)giveyourcomments.

After getting up, I wash my face. brush my teeth, and comb my hair.

What is the point of telling you about this second book? Well, it all hinges on the dates involved. The latter story was written in the early 1960s, whereas the Goosebumps series dates from the 1990s. (46) This makes the point rather dear: The sands have shifted radically in 30 years. A "debunking" book like this is no longer fashionable. Who today wants to read about anything as thought-provoking and "uncool" as debunking? Where once a movie was commonplace? (47) The "magical realism" movement, where natural and supernatural events happily converge, has become enormously influential in serious literature, as well. Movie and television viewers and readers of serious literature are given the tacit message that me line between the natural and supernatural is blurry, and perhaps even nonexistent. Not surprisingly, concomitant with these high—and pap—culture trends comes a profoundly disturbing collective shift in attitude. (48) The general public no longer views science, let alone the ultimate truths of the universe, with a sense of awe and mystery, but instead considers it conservative and mundane, "trapped" in logical thinking. It is as if the shackles of rigidity have been removed when "open-minded" attitudes are conveyed on television, in books, in movies about ESP, UFQ, or any of a thousand other varieties of alleged paranormal phenomena. (49) The great danger, in my estimation, is not so much that vast numbers of children and adults will get sucked wholesale into truly goofy belief systems, but that they will be misled into accepting the implicit message that science is boring, conservative, dose-minded, devoid of mystery, and a negative force in society. Again, this message is not overt, but tacit, perhaps not even consciously intended. Yet it is precisely this subliminality that makes it so insidious and dangerous. I have no quick fixes. I do not know how to quickly and easily repair decades of damage. I do not even fully understand why the sands have shifted so radically. (50) All I can do is look on in sadness and worry about the future of rational inquiry, bemoaning the loss of awe toward genuine mysteries that our society was once lucky enough to possess.

Studythefollowingpicturecarefullyandwriteanessayof160—200words.Youressaymustbewrittenclearlyandmeettherequirementsbelow:1)Describethepicture.2)Deducethepurposeofthedrawerofthepicture.3)Andgiveyourcomments.

We"ve been having the wrong discussion about globalization.【F1】 For years, we"ve argued over whether this or that industry and its workers might suffer from imports and whether the social costs were worth the economic gains from foreign products, technologies and investments. By and large, the answer has been "yes." But the truly significant questions about globalization are harder toanswer. Is an increasingly interconnected world economy basically stable? Or does it generate periodic crises that harm everyone and spawn international conflict? 【F2】 Let"s concede that the present U.S. economic slowdown—maybe already a recession—stems mostly from familiar domestic causes: the burst housing "bubble," problematic lending practices and households" heavy debt burdens. All have depressed housing and consumer spending. Still, global factors, notably high oil and food prices, have aggravated the slump, and there is a general anxiety that we are in the grip of worldwide economic and financial forces that we do not understand and cannot easily control. This sense of foreboding is not unreasonable, and it helps explain the yawning gap between the economy"s actual performance (poor, but not horrific) and mass psychology (almost horrific). The good that globalization has done is hard to dispute, though some do.【F3】 Trade-driven economic growth and technology transfer have alleviated much human misery, and if present economic trends continue, the worldwide middle class will expand by an additional 2 billion by 2030. In the U-nited States, imports and foreign competition have raised incomes by 10 percent since World War II, some studies suggest. Job losses, though real, are often exaggerated. In the late 1990s, U.S. trade deficits increased while unemployment fell. 【F4】 But these advances could be halted or reversed by a disorderly global economy, an economy plagued by financial crises, interruptions of crucial supplies (oil, obviously), trade wars or violent business cycles. This is globalization"s Achilles" heel. Connections among countries have deepened and become more contradictory. Take oil producers.【F5】 On one hand, high oil prices hurt advanced countries; but on the other, oil countries have an interest in keeping advanced countries prosperous, because that"s where much surplus oil wealth is invested. Today"s global economy baffles experts—corporate executives, bankers, economists—as much as ordinary people. Anyone who says differently is either deluded or dishonest. Countries are growing economically more interdependent and politically more nationalistic. They try to maximize their own advantage rather than make the system work for everyone. Considering how much could go wrong, the record is so far remarkably favorable. Alas, that"s no guarantee for the future.

AttendParents'MeetingwithaGoodImageWriteanessayof160-200wordsbasedonthedrawing.Inyouressay,youshould1)describethedrawingbriefly,2)explainitsintendedmeaning,and3)giveyourcomments.

Write a poster to your schoolmates, informing them of a new book to be released. You should write about 100 words. Do not sign your own name at the end of the letter; use "Li Ming" instead. Do not write the address.

On Constellation Craze A. Title: On Constellation Craze B. Word limit: 160~200 words (not including the given opening sentence) C. Your composition should be based on the OUTLINE below and should start with the given opening sentence: "Nowadays, constellation has become a common topic." OUTLINE: 1. Young people"s craze for constellation 2. My opinion 3. Making a conclusion

Most of us are taught to pay attention to what is said—the words. Words do provide us with some information, but meanings are (1)_____ from so many other sources that it would hinder our effectiveness (2)_____ a partner to a relationship to rely too heavily on words (3)_____ Words are used to describe only a small part of the many ideas we associate with any given (4)_____. Sometimes we can gain insight into some of those (5)_____ if we listen for (6)_____ words. We don"t always say what we mean (7)_____ mean what we say. Mostly we mean several things at once. A person wanting to purchase a house says to the current owner. "This step has to be fixed before I"ll buy". The owner says, "It"s been like that for years". (8)_____, the step hasn"t been like that for years, but the (9)_____ message is: "I don"t want to fix it. We can put up with it why can"t you?" The (10)_____ for a more expansive view of meaning can be developed by examining a message (11)_____ who said it, when it occurred, the (12)_____ conditions or situation, and how it was said. When a message occurs can also (13)_____ associated meaning. A friend"s unusually docile behavior may only be understood by (14)_____ that it was preceded by situations that required a(n) (15)_____ amount of assertiveness. We would do well to listen for how message are (16)_____ The words, "it sure has been nice to have you over", can be said with (17)_____ and excited or ritualistically. The phrase can be said once or (18)_____ several times. And the meaning we associate with the phrase will change (19)_____ Sometimes if we say something infrequently it assumes more importance; sometimes the more we say something the (20)_____ importance it assumes.

By wrestling with the question of its corporate structure, Pfizer is having a debate that echoes throughout the industry. Investors have pressed many diversified drug firms this year over whether they should break themselves up into more specialised units. Diversified firms are those that typically have consumer-health divisions offering low-margin products such as plasters and talcum powder. Meanwhile, "pure-play" drug companies focus on innovative medicines—for example, a full cure for Hepatitis C— that command high margins. Companies such as Johnson & Johnson (J&J), GSK and Novartis fall into the first camp, and have all recently wrestled with the question of splitting themselves up. Investors and analysts tell them that they may be worth more broken into their parts than as a whole, and ask whether capital is being allocated efficiently across their divisions. These sort of questions inspired Pfizer to sell its consumer-products division to J&J in 2006, and Merck, an American drug firm, to divest its consumer unit to Bayer in 2014. Neil Woodford, an influential shareholder in many pharma companies, including the British drug firm GSK, accused it in January of being four FTSE100 companies bolted together. GSK includes its core medicines and vaccines outfit, a consumer-healthcare division, a dermatology unit and a specialist HIV business. Andrew Witty, its boss, explains that some time ago he took a long-term view of his company, anticipating greater pressure on drug prices. The firm wanted to offset lower drug prices with higher sales of low-margin, high-volume products. The aim was to invest in businesses that were less exposed to a "pricing dynamic". Other diversified pharma companies make the same case. Consumer divisions smooth out the bumpy revenue that comes with the uncertain business of inventing drugs—which may fail to win approval, and eventually come off patent. In recent months the argument has gone their way. There has been heavy pressure on drug pricing in America after a series of firms, most recently Mylan, were pilloried for stratospheric rises. The NASDAQ biotech index, comprising mostly small firms pursuing innovative drug research, fell by 3.6% on a single day in August when Hillary Clinton sharply criticised the industry's decisions on pricing. Advocates of diversification were boosted by GSK's strong performance in the second quarter of this year. It handily beat expectations thanks to those boring, low-margin areas like consumer health and vaccines. Even firms that publicly profess a desire to slim down are likely to buy others. Cash is piling up on the balance-sheets of many companies in the industry. Japan's Takeda is the latest to indicate that it is on the prowl for acquisitions. Firms may be looking for new drugs to sell, or different geographical regions to operate in. In specific areas such as cancer, points out Matthias Evers, a partner at McKinsey, a consultancy, scale and the depth of drug pipelines matter enormously. Pfizer's purchase of Mediation, for example, allows the bigger firm to bolster its oncology portfolio. However much pharma bosses and investors debate the merits of focus versus diversification, they will keep doing deals.

They may not be the richest, but Africans remain the world"s staunchest optimists. An annual survey by Gallup International, a research outfit, shows that, when asked whether this year will be better than last, Africa once again comes out on top. Out of 52,000 people interviewed all over the world, under half believe that things are looking up. But in Africa the proportion is close to 60% almost twice as much as in Europe. Africans have some reasons to be cheerful. The continent"s economy has been doing fairly well with South Africa, the economic powerhouse, growing steadily over the past few years. Some of Africa"s long-running conflicts, such as the war between the north and south in Sudan and the civil war in Congo, have ended. Africa even has its first elected female head of state, in Liberia. Yet there is no shortage of downers too. Most of Africa remains dirt poor. Crises in places like Cote d"Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe are far from solved. And the democratic credentials of Ethiopia and Uganda, once the darlings of western donors, have taken a bad knock. AIDS killed over gm Africans in 2005, and will kill more this year. So is it all just a case of irrational exuberance? Meril James of Gallup argues that there is, in fact, usually very little relation between the survey"s optimism rankings and reality. Africans, this year led by Nigerians, are consistently the most upbeat, whether their lot gets better or not. On the other hand, Greece—hardly the worst place on earth—tops the gloom and doom chart, followed closely by Portugal and France. Ms James speculates that religion may have a lot to do with it. Nine out of ten Africans are religious, the highest proportion in the world. But cynics argue that most Africans believe that 2006 will be golden because things have been so bad that it is hard to imagine how they could possibly get worse. This may help explain why places that have suffered recent misfortunes, such as Kosovo and Afghanistan, rank among the top five optimists. Moussaka for thought for those depressed Greeks.

In the two decades between 1929 and 1949, sculpture in the United States sustained what was probably the greatest expansion in sheer technique to occur in many centuries. (46) There was, first of all, the incorporation of welding into sculptural practice, with the result that it was possible to form a new kind of metal object. For sculptors working with metal, earlier restricted to the dense solidity of the bronze cast, it was possible to add a type of work assembled from paper—thin metal sheets or sinuously curved rods. Sculpture could take the form of a linear, two-dimensional frame and still remain physically self supporting. Along with the innovation of welding came a correlative departure: freestanding sculpture that was shockingly flat. Yet another technical expansion of the options for sculpture appeared in the guise of motion. (47) The individual parts of a sculpture were no longer understood as necessarily fixed in relation to one another, but could be made to change position within a work constructed as a moving object. Motorizing the sculpture was only one of many possibilities taken up in the 1930"s. (48) Other strategies for getting the work to move involved structuring it in such a way that external forces, like air movements or the touch of a viewer, could initiate motion. Movement brought with it a new attitude toward the issue of sculptural unity: a work might be made of widely diverse and even discordant elements; their formal unity would be achieved through the arc of a particular motion completing itself through time. (49) Like the use of welding and movement, the third of these major technical expansions to develop in the 1930"s and 1940"s addressed the issues of sculptural materials and sculptural unity. But its medium for doing so was the found object, an item not intended for use in a piece of artwork such as a newspaper or metal pipe. To create a sculpture by assembling parts that had been fabricated originally for a quite different context did not necessarily involve a new technology. (50) But it did mean a change in sculptural practice, for it raised the possibility that making sculpture might involve more a conceptual shift than a physical transformation of the material from which it is composed.

When shopkeepers want to lure customers into buying a particular product, they typically offer it at a discount. According to a new study to be published in the Journal of Marketing, they are【C1】______a trick. A team of researchers, led by Akshay Rao of University of Minnesota, looked at consumers'【C2】______to discounting. Shoppers, they found, much prefer getting something extra free to getting something cheaper. The main reason is that most people are【C3】______at fractions. Consumers often struggle to realise,【C4】______, that a 50% increase in【C5】______is the same as a 33% discount in price. They【C6】______assume the former is better value. In an experiment, the researchers sold 73% more hand lotion when it was offered in a【C7】______pack than when it carried an equivalent discount. This numerical blind【C8】______remains even when the deal【C9】______favours the discounted product In another experiment, this time on his undergraduates, Mr. Rao offered two deals on loose coffee beans: 33% extra free or 33%【C10】______the price. The discount is【C11】______the better proposition, but the experiment shows the supposedly clever students viewed them as【C12】______. Marketing types can draw lessons【C13】______just pricing, says Mr. Rao. When advertising a new car's efficiency, for example, it is more【C14】______to talk about the number of extra miles per gallon it does,【C15】______the equivalent percentage fall in fuel【C16】______. There may be lessons for officials who【C17】______prices too. Even well-educated shoppers are easily【C18】______. Sending everyone back to school for maths seems out of the question.【C19】______more prominently displayed unit prices in shops and advertisements would be a great【C20】______.

For centuries, explorers have risked their lives venturing into the unknown for reasons of economic benefit and national glory. Following the lunar missions of the early 1970s, Mars now looms as humanity"s next great, unknown land. But with dubious prospects for short-term financial return and with international competition in space a receding memory, it is clear that imperatives other than profit or national pride will have to compel human beings to leave their tracks on the planet"s red surface. With Mars the scientific benefits are perhaps higher than they have ever been. The issue of whether life ever existed on the planet, and whether it persists to this day, has been highlighted by accumulating evidence that Mars once had abundant liquid water and by the controversy over suggestions that fossils of bacteria rode to Earth on a rock ejected from Mars during its early history. A definite answer about life on Mars, past or present, would give researchers invaluable data about the range of conditions under which a planet can generate the complex chemistry that leads to life. The revelation that life arose independently on Mars and on Earth would provide the first concrete clue in one of the deepest mysteries in all of science: how prevalent is life in our galaxy? One of the reasons why the idea of sending people to Mars strikes a chord in so many people is that it is already possible—the U.S. has the money and the fundamental technology needed to do it. More important, recent discoveries about the planet"s environment in the distant past have presented a clear and compelling scientific incentive for sending people: to search for evidence of life. The thesis that liquid water was once stable on Mars has been strengthened by aerial photographs taken last year that showed what appeared to be a drainage channel cut deeply by water flowing for hundreds if not thousands of years. A thorough hunt for any life on Mars that might be hanging on—despite the present deficit of water—would also have to be undertaken by humans, according to some experts. Such life will be hidden and probably tiny. "Finding it will require surveying vast tracts of territory," one expert explains. "It will require the ability to cover long distances and adapt to different conditions." Robots might be up to the task sometime in the distant future, making human explorers redundant, he concedes. But relying on them to survey Mars during periodical missions to the planet would take a very long time—"decades if not centuries," he believes.

On Making Friends A. Title: On Making Friends B. Time limit: 40 minutes C. Word limit: 160-200 words (not including the given opening sentence) D. Your composition should be based on the OUTLINE below and should start with the given opening sentence: "As a human being, one can hardly do without a friend". OUTLINE: 1. The need for friends 2. True friendship 3. My principle in making friends

On TV Dating Shows A. On TV Dating Shows B. Word limit: 160~200 words (not including the given opening sentence) C. Your composition should be based on the OUTLINE below and should start with the given opening sentence: "In recent years, there are a flood of dating shows on TV." OUTLINE: 1. The popularity and controversy of TV dating shows 2. People"s different opinions on these shows 3. My opinion

A recent body of economic literature supports the notion that the self-employed are more satisfied with their jobs than are employees. The research finds this to be true across most OECD countries, with Austria, Finland, and Greece the major exceptions. However, in Self-Employment: More May Not Be Better (NBER Working Paper No. 10286), NBER Research Associate David Blanchflower distinguishes a number of less desirable aspects of being self-employed which do not appear to have been quantified previously. (46) His study helps to explain why so many of those who express a desire to become self-employed are frustrated in that desire for many reason, including the difficulty in obtaining capital. Blanchflower finds that self-employment rates are generally down across the OECD. The main exceptions are the United Kingdom and New Zealand. The strong patterns evident in the data across countries show that the probability of being self-employed across the OECD is higher for men and for older workers as compared with younger workers. (47) In Europe, the probabilities of being self-employed are lower the more educated an individual is, while the opposite is true in the United States. Some groups of immigrants also have higher rates of self-employment than the indigenous population. Capital constraints appear to bind especially tightly in the United States for firms owned by minorities and women. The low rates of self-employment of blacks and Hispanics in the United States appear, in part, to be driven by liquidity constraints. There is evidence that liquidity constraints are felt in other countries as well, including the United Kingdom, Finland, Australia, Canada, and Sweden. (48) He also suggests that people may have an unrealistically rosy view of what it is like to run their own business, rather than staying with the comparative security of being an employee. A surprisingly high proportion of employees say they would prefer to be self-employed. (49) Despite the fact that very high proportions of employees say they would like to set up their own business, the reality is quite different. The evidence in this paper suggests that people may well be able to judge what is in their own best interest, which is precisely why they remain as employees. (50) The self-employed work under a lot of pressure; they report that they find their work stressful; they come home from work exhausted and are constantly under strain; they lose sleep due to worry; and they place more weight on work than they do on leisure. However, they are also especially likely to say that they have control over their lives and to report a high level of satisfaction with their lives. Being self-employed is difficult and appears to require rare talents; Blanchflower concludes that self employment is not for everyone.

Suppose you are manager of the Designs & Fashions. Mr. Wang, a newly recruited employee, was considering to quit the job. Now write a letter to him to persuade him to change his decision. Your writing should be based on the following outline: 1) stating your purpose, 2) giving your reasons, and 3) expressing your best wishes. You should write neatly on the ANSWER SHEET. (10 points)